Customer Reviews

Engineering Electromagnetics with CD (McGraw-Hill Series in Electrical Engineering)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I originally started with the 6th edition...but there were no answers in the back, even for the odd-numbered problems. I asked the publisher and they said it was a policy. OK, that's dumb, but whatever.

Then I went to the 5th edition and got fairly far, but eventually got to a point where I couldn't solve one of the problems and the worthless examples weren't helping. (The examples are worthless because the question and answers are given, but the work isn't shown. Uh, hello--that's the point of examples.) The book has a certain surface readability but doesn't really explain the underlying issues very well. Chapter one is a good example of this: I knew cylindrical and spherical coordinates a lot better before this book confused me.

Then I got the 7th edition. I got as far as problem #17 in chapter one and found *4* errors (One simple typo in a problem, one answer somewhat off and two answers just out of the ballpark, flat out *wrong*).

The original author died 20 years ago--it is time for this book to be scrapped.

You can learn E&M for the first time only once. I took my first course on E&M in the Physics department. We used the book by Purcell. It was intuitive, visual, engaging almost poetry. Then I took my next semester in the Electrical Engineering department. We used Hayt. It was mundane, pedestrian, just the facts madam. And yet I learned from it. Since then I've picked up half a dozen introductory E&M texts. But I go back to Purcell for understanding and Hayt for engineering help. But I've looked at those other books and I don't think any of them would have been any better. So that earns Hayt a solid 3 stars. All these books discuss skin effect, but only Hayt discusses the effect of skin depth on inductance. For that, it gets an extra star.

I'm an EE undergrad student and I have to struggle to use this book on a weekly basis. This book lacks sufficient examples, doesn't clearly derive the equations it uses, and worst of all uses TERRIBLE wording in explaining concepts, typically making them more complicated than they already are.

DO NOT PURCHASE THIS BOOK! "Oh well I have to, for my class." No, you don't. Get the homework problems from a friend or Google Books. Then do yourself a favor and buy the book by Ida, that book is fantastic. It explains things clearly, telling you why certain methods are preferred, and it has examples that cover different parts of each concept.

Worst book ever.

well just take my word . if u plan is to hate E&M field and T lines ,this book will do the job . i suffer for 2 semester with this book , not just me but at least a dozen of students with me and i m glade its over and done with .
i don t want to scare u but field theory and transmission lines are not that easy and with such a text book the semester will be very long for u

I find this to be a very interesting course, but it is made quite difficult by a single small problem: It is very hard to get an understanding of a field which is built upon a solid foundation of mathematics when the book you're using skips over this most crucial aspect.

It is great that I have answers to the odd problems and the in section examples, but with no work to guide me I am left frustrated and exhausted. Combined with 4 other classes, this leads to a tough time trying to figure out even simple concepts.

Find a better book unless you already have a thorough understanding of this material, you will NOT regret it.

There are lot of books on undergraduate electromagnetics. This would be in my list.The books I have and recommend are
1) D.K Cheng
2) Hayt and Buck
3) Ulaby
4) Edminister - Schaum's outline electromagnetics.
5) Spiegel - Schaum's outline vector calculus.
6) You should use Finney and George - calculus along with these books.

The book you should avoid is one by Kraus!!.
If you want to master undergraduate electromagnetics, you should have the 6 books!. There are people who complain about (1), (2) and (3). This is because their mathematical background is not strong. So I recommend (4), (5) and (6) to be used along with (1), (2) and (3).
You simply cannot write books better than (1),(2) and (3).
Those who complain ahout this book, should increase their mathematical background.

I have more than 5 books on this subject. I am a self studier, I read a few books on each topic. I never found any useful information from this book. This book don't seemed to go into detail of each subject, just give the formulas. If you use it in school, good luck!! If you study on your own like me, get some other books like Cheng's.

Between the teacher and this book absolutely nothing was learned. The book does not do a good job of explaining anything, granted it is easy to read. The end of the Chapter problems are so difficult compared to what they are trying to teach in the chapter that is leaves you frustrated. The example problems are so jumbled together that you have no idea what answer goes with what problem or how they solved it at all. The example problems also almost have no relevance to the end of the chapter problems. I say if you have to use this book you are better off finding yourself a good physics book and learning electromagnetics from that.

This book was chosen arbitrarily by our EE professor for Electricity and Magnetism. This book is absolutely horrible. Rather than rant, I will simply provide a list.

1) Many of the examples are lacking in explanation, so if one of them is wrong and you end up with an answer different than the one indicated, it will be difficult to figure out whether the author screwed up or if you simply don't grasp the theory.

2) The derivations of some of the formulas are very unclear, so if you are presented with a problem that differs greatly from the provided examples, it will be difficult to determine the correct procedure.

3) With all mathematics and proofs the book contains, it will be clear once you start doing the chapter review problems that there is a large amount of theory missing from the text.

4) The provided CD containing some visual examples does not fill the void left by the textbook.

This is hands-down one of the WORST textbooks I have ever purchased. The number of mistakes contained in such a late-edition text is appalling. The fact that this book is in its seventh edition is proof that this is not student-reviewed, and that the author and editor are simply greedy.

This book definitely needs more praise than it is receiving.

Electrical engineering is easily the most theoretical and math oriented of all the disciplines. Hayt and Buck don't try to glaze over this fact and they present to you electromagnetics in a very mathematical form. They also realize this is likely your first time playing around with Maxwell's equations so they take it easy on you too! This book is very thorough, very concise, filled with practical examples and if you put in your own time, a very rewarding read. I promise that by the end of it, you will have a much better grasp on electromagnetic phenomena occurring around you, leaving you with an intuition that will serve you well in your more advanced courses and later in your career.